RWBY ShatteredKing
by rekr ori'kad
Summary: Ozpin gives up. He retreats to a small cabin in the woods and lives as a hermit content to let the world burn around him. but what happens when a young girl with dreams of being a hero stumbles upon him? will she be able to pull him out of his centuries long funk or will he continue down the path that will lead to the worlds destruction?


"How pitiful."

"That would be a matter of opinion."

"Even after all you tried to accomplish, unifying them and pushing them towards greatness, even now, your most desperate hour, they abandon you."

"They have not abandoned me, I have gone beyond where they can follow."

"Abandoning because of weakness is still abandonment."

"Perhaps, however recognizing limitations is not a weakness."

"Regardless you stand alone."

"We shall see."

"You must come to terms with the fact that there is none, has never been, and never will be anyone who can stand alongside you in this or any hour."

"..."

"It's over, you never stood a chance."

"I still breathe, there is still hope."

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And so the Last King of Vale stood against the darkness alone.

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The man awoke with a start, cane in hand ready to fight whatever monsters his dream had conjured into the waking world. After finding the forest around him mercifully clear of grimm or other, more sinister monsters in human form, he relaxed and took stock of himself. Physically he was fine, a fit teenage boy that appeared to have trained his whole life to fight. The only real damage the man could find in himself was that of the mind. The nightmares that plagued him always returned him to times past, forcing him to revisit his many mistakes and fallen comrades. He had been known throughout history by many different names, many would call him hero, savior, and mentor, but those who knew him would all eventually call him Oz. He checked the position of the sun to guess the time was about nine in the morning. He could be in Vale within the day and he could talk with his comrades and… and what? He would have to convince them as to his identity, he wasn't ready to go back into the fight, and for that matter neither would his comrades. He looked down at the cane in his hand, his only constant companion, no matter how many lives he lived he would always find his way back to his cane.

"There is none, has never been, and never will be any who can stand alongside you."

"What am I even doing?" Oz said aloud "I can't beat her on my own, and she's right no one has ever been able to stand beside me." He looked at his cane again, his constant friend, his constant reminder of the mission he had failed, and the men he had lost.

"I'm done, I can't do this anymore." Oz said as stabbed his cane into a large rock at his feet. He took one last look and bade his ancient friend farewell.

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The forest was dark and spooky, but the little girl stumbling through it knew she couldn't stop now, the sounds of beowolves howling behind her told her that much. Still as she wandered in naught but her pajamas and a red blanket wrapped around she knew she couldn't move for much longer. Her feet were bloody due to her lack of shoes, she was exhausted from overusing her semblance, which she had only unlocked along with her aura earlier that evening. She was about to collapse where she stood when she saw it. A small log cabin in the middle of a small clearing. She hurried as quickly as she could to the door, stumbling several times along the way, and knocked on it. There was no answer from inside. She heard the sound paws hitting the ground behind her and looked to see several beowolves entering the clearing. She began pounding on the door as hard as she could when there was still no answer she grabbed the handle and tried opening the door. She was a little surprised when the door opened easily. That surprise was quickly washed away by panic as she felt something tear through the back of her pajamas and dig into her back. She practically threw herself into the cabin yanking the door shut behind her. She hurt so bad, and even now she could hear the beowolves clawing away at the door and trying to get in. She knew they would eventually, then they'd eat her and then everything would be over. She curled up into a ball and broke down in tears.

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As Ozpin approached his cabin he knew something was wrong. There were paw prints all over the courtyard, and around the cabin were at least three beowolves. He almost panicked, thinking that She had found him again, but then he thought better of it. If She had found him there would be a lot more than three low level beowolves. He grabbed the logging ax on his belt and pulled it free of its leather sheath. The beowolves seemed to finally notice his presence and charged him. He used his magic to slow time and appear before the first one. He brought the ax down on its head, hard. It split open like many of the logs that Ozpin had cut with the same ax. The second one moved in to swipe at him, but he caught it on the wooden haft of his makeshift weapon, which he had been pumping aura into to keep together. He slowed time again and disarmed the beowolf, literally, before chopping it's head off to finish it off. The third one seemed to pause after seeing it's comrades so soundly defeated. Rather than give it time to decide what to do Ozpin flung the ax, end over end, at the beast. It landed squarely between it's eyes, shattering the thin bone plate on its face in the process. After he had recovered his ax Ozpin gathered up the stack of wood he had been carrying and went to his cabin. He took note of the claw marks on the door and wall around the door, almost like they were trying to get in. his mind easily put the pieces together grimm were only after one thing people, and if they were trying to get into his cabin someone was in there, in his cabin. He quickly became enraged, he was done with this, no more heroes, no more damsels in distress, he was not the same wizard that four little girls had convinced to fight the evils of the world. He set aside the wood and drew his ax again. He opened the door to find a bloodied kid, no older than five, lying on the floor, crying.

"Hey! What are you doing here!" he demanded, shaking off the urge to help the girl, he wasn't that man anymore. The girl seemed to stop for a moment and then slowly started getting up.

"*hic* I'm *hic* sorry." the girl said as she turned to look at him with tearful bloodshot eyes. Silver eyes.

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 _Many years ago, before Dust or Aura had been discovered_

Ozpin looked over the small army that had assembled at his call. A few hundred pairs of silver eyes looked back at him.

"This fight will not be easy," He called out, "anyone who does not wish to fight should leave now." Not a single person moved. "I'm serious many of us will not come back from this, if you want to leave you should do it now." This time someone did move but it was to step forward.

"It is the grimm that fear us, not the other way around!" the blonde silver-eyed leader shouted back, "the House of Arc stands with you, Wizard!" The group behind him cheered.

"If we don't fight here and now no one will be able to!" another leader with silver beard and hair to match his aging eyes. "The House of Chester will not turn back today."

"You have been my friend for years and a friend of my house for many longer!" said a red haired leader, "as long as any member of the House of Roses breathes we will stand with you!"

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Ozpin sucked in a breath. That was impossible he had seen them all die that day, all of the silver-eyed warriors killed in one of his most spectacular mistakes. The girl mumbled more apologies as she got up and moved to the door to leave. Meanwhile Ozpin's soul warred within himself, if there was one group of people that HE, the man who had given almost everything for humanity, owed it was the silver-eyed warriors. It was he who called them and led them into battle, and he who got them all killed. He was never able to repay them for their sacrifice or bravery, but now one of them stood in his home. On the other hand he had promised himself that he would never again get involved in mortal affairs. He continued to war within himself until he looked down and saw the small bloody footprints the girl left on his floor. Something snapped inside him and a side won out. ' _Ah, screw it_.'

"Wait." he said, the girl froze like a statue, or would have if she wasn't still shaking from her sobbing. "You're injured, if you go out there like that you'll die" the girl still didn't move, "come here and I'll treat your injuries" the girl slowly turned and walked over towards him. He motioned for her to sit on the couch. He then took stock of the injuries she had suffered. The claw marks on her back looked the most serious, still they couldn't have been to deep if she was still walking around.

"Lie on your front so I can work on your back." he told her, she nodded and did as he said without word. As he got a better look at the wound he realized that he would need to stitch it. He grabbed some anesthetic and a needle and thread. "I'm going to numb the wound so that I can fix it without hurting you, okay?" the girl nodded and Ozpin set to work. Once he was done he had her sit up and he began treating her feet. While he was working he felt the faint hum of an active Aura coming from the girl. The fact that it had not healed any of her lesser injuries told Ozpin that it was exhausted.

"You have silver eyes." he said without looking up from his work. The girl was startled a little by the sudden conversation, "are there more of you?" he asked. When she didn't respond he looked at her only to find her face full of confusion. "More people with silver eyes." he clarified. She seemed to consider a moment before shaking her head. Ozpin sighed before asking another question. "What's your name?"

"R-Ruby" the girl hesitantly answered.

"Well, Ruby, didn't your parents ever tell you not to go into the woods alone?" Ozpin asked. He was however surprised when she shook her head no.

"T-They don't talk to me, Unless they're being mean." Ozpin frowned when she said that. Being 'mean' could mean anything in a child's vocabulary, but her parents not talking to her sounded, wrong, and he had never met a silver-eyes who could neglect anyone's child let alone their own, it just went against their nature. Ozpin finished the bandages up and stood up to see the girl looking at something off to the side of the room. He followed the path of her eyes and realized they were on his bookshelf. He didn't really own any books by other authors the book shelves were filled with journals and memoirs he was writing.

"Do you like books?" he asked Ruby, she quickly looked at him and nodded.

"I can't really read them yet but my mom used to read them to me." she said, "stories of heroes and monsters, I want to be a hero too!" Ozpin chuckled until another voice echoed in his mind. ' _We have a need to be the hero._ ' Shaking off the old memory he thought about the girls words. They didn't seem to line up with her previous story of her parents.

"Does she not read to you anymore?" he asked. Ruby got a confused look on her face before shaking her head.

"No, Raven's Yang's mom," she told him, "my mom is, gone." her words caused Ozpin to wince as the situation became more clear to him. A step parent or possibly adopted parents, even still he was growing less pleased with Ruby's family the more they talked.

"Well, you're going to have to rest here tonight as I won't be going into town until tomorrow," Ozpin said, "if I read you a story will you be able to go to sleep?" Ruby's eyes got wide and she nodded. Ozpin went to the bookshelf and picked a story out that he knew would be, kinder, on the young girls perception of the world.

"Long ago, before dust, there lived a queen in castle." he began the story, "an evil grimm dragon had attacked the castle and took away her young maiden daughter. The king was away on a long journey, so she came to me and asked 'please sire, save my daughter.' and so I set off…"

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A/N and there it is my little secret project. This story is a little different from any of my others, in that it is not I writing it! Or at least not by myself. Yup, this story has a co-author. He's the Ruby to my Yang, my little brother Irlr Ori'kad, say hi!

Irlr:more like the Torchwick to your Neo since you are small quiet and probably in charge but no one really knows.

Rekr: hey now I am most definitely in charge! ALSO I'M NOT SMALL! I'm just not a little Hulk like you are.

Irlr: then wouldn't I be Yang?

Rekr: no because I'm the older one and it was a metaphor, so it doesn't matter that my fighting style is closer to Ruby's. besides if we were going off fighting styles you would be Jaune and I would be Adam or Raven.

Irlr: maybe if I were time traveling Jaune.

Rekr: you're not that good. Anywho, hope you enjoy this story! *closes curtain as muffled yelling intensifies*


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